For information on the costs of the Death Penalty, please vist the page "The Issue with Cost" on my website.

No Death Penalty in Wisconsin

Many family members of murder victims oppose the death penalty, for a variety of reasons. Some believe that it is wrong for individuals to kill and it is wrong for the state to kill. Others believe that the risk of executing an innocent person is unacceptable and that the system cannot be made to work fairly and accurately. Still others believe the lengthy legal process is just too hard on victims, and that it is just not worth the time and expense. Below are voices of murder victim family members who believe that the death penalty is not consistent public policy, does not make the public safer, does not deter crime, and does not serve victims.

Marge Mattice (Green Bay, WI)

Marge is a Nurse Practitioner living in Green Bay. She is a member of the diocesan and the St. Norbert Abbey Peace and Justice Committees, a Norbertine lay associate and a volunteer in her parish. Her brother Thomas Williams was murdered in Houston, Texas in 2001.

"I feel like I come from a pretty sound base when I address my pro-life concerns for the death penalty. I don't think it's an answer. It's not a solution in terms of my own brother. Nothing is going to bring him back. I would get absolutely no satisfaction from seeing another person murdered. That's not a tribute to my brother or any other victim of homicide."

Aleta Reckling Chossek (Shorewood, WI)

Aleta Reckling Chossek is the assistant to the bishop of the Greater Milwaukee Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Her father was murdered in Lake County, Illinois in 1994.

“The death penalty option brought no peace, no closure to our family. Murder brings out primitive emotions in families. In addition to the grief, there is the natural desire for closure, retribution, justice and, ultimately, peace. The whole family, even the youngest grandchildren, lives with the legacy of that terrible death.”

“Christians profess that Jesus took all sin upon him in his death. Yet we flawed humans seek to answer death with death. Does that not diminish Christ's suffering on our behalf? I believe that God has taken care of my sin, my father's sin and the murderer's sin. No act of man can make God's sacrifice more complete. A referendum is not a suitable vehicle for honoring people's experiences and beliefs about death and justice.”

Robert W. Hoelscher (Austin, TX)

Robert is a member of Murder Victim’s Families for Reconciliation (MVFR), a national organization of murder victim family members who oppose the death penalty in all cases. Robert’s father was murdered when he was seven years old.

“Two days after my father’s murder, my mother called the parents of the young man responsible. She told them that she that she understood, that she had sons, too and that hatred would not bring my dad back. She forgave their son right there. As I grew up I never associated ‘closure’ with the fate of my father’s killer. And I learned from my mother that another death would bring me no peace or offer real justice for our community. Today, the teenager that so long ago made five children fatherless remains in a small prison cell in East Texas, where I continue to hope that one day he will wake up and ask himself, ‘What have I done?’”

Author of Wisconsin Death Penalty Referendum Says Law Has No Chance of Passing

Sen. Al Lasee (R-DePere) of Wisconsin was the author of legislation that placed a non-binding referendum on the death penalty on the state's ballot in Tuesday's election. Although 56% of the voters approved the death penalty proposal, which required that DNA evidence confirm the conviction, Lasee said there was no chance of such a law passing in the near future: "I am a realist. There is no prospect," said Lasee , a longtime supporter of capital punishment. "The Democrats took control of the Senate and Gov. Doyle got re-elected." The governor opposes the death penalty and could veto any bill enacting capital punishment. Lasee guided the advisory referendum through the Legislature when both houses were controlled by Republicans and he was president of the Senate. He conceded that the DNA evidence requirement would probably have been dropped from an eventual bill.(The Capital Times (WI), Nov. 8, 2006). (DPIC)

ELECTION 2006 IN WISCONSIN SHOWS WE WANT THE DEATH PENALTY!

Spring 1995

Spring 2000

Strongly Favor

50%

33%

Moderately Favor

21

32

Moderately Oppose

11

15

Strongly Oppose

14

17

Not Sure

4

3

"What is the primary reason you FAVOR the death penalty?"

Spring 1995

Spring 2000

Crime Deterrent

24%

17%

It is Appropriate

31

56

Prison Issues

13

6

Tax Issues

16

11

Justice for Families

1

2

Other

13

7

Not Sure

0

<1

"What is the primary reason you OPPOSE the death penalty?"

Spring 1995

Spring 2000

Moral Conviction

56%

61%

Possibility of Convicting Innocent

14

28

Costs/Economics

2

3

Other

23

7

Not Sure

5

2

"Now in regards to the murder of a child under the age of 16, do you strongly favor, moderately favor, moderately oppose or strongly oppose the use of the death penalty for persons convicted of such a crime?"

Spring 1995

Spring 2000

Strongly Favor

61%

39%

Moderately Favor

14

25

Moderately Oppose

11

14

Strongly Oppose

10

18

Not Sure

4

4

Preferred Method of Execution

"If Wisconsin were to enact a death penalty, which method of execution do you think the state should use. . .?"

Spring 1995

Spring 2000

Electric Chair

7%

4%

Lethal Injection

73

82

Gas Chamber

4

2

Hanging

4

4

Other

4

3

Not Sure

9

5

Life in Prison

"Do you strongly favor, moderately favor, moderately oppose or strongly oppose life in prison without parole for persons convicted of first degree intentional murder in Wisconsin?"

Strongly Favor

65%

Moderately Favor

17

Moderately Oppose

8

Strongly Oppose

8

Not Sure

2

Questions for the Government ?

1) Why do we need the Death Penalty?

2) How does it help the way we feel about someone?

3) Does the Deaht Penalty help with violence in the US?

4) Do we really feel satisfied after someone has been executed?

5) What is the point of the Death Penalty?

6) Does the Death Penalty really make us feel safer after someone has been executed?